Saturday, September 22, 2012

Organize, organize, organize...

I think I'm going to reboot this blog. The title is still appropriate, though I'm no longer really in the science field. I'm currently unemployed, looking for work, after an attempt at unionizing went wrong. It was a great learning experience in terms of labor organizing, but being inexperienced I made mistakes and lost legal protection. Cest la vie.

I've remained active in the Occupy movement/organization/whateveritis. That's an ongoing debate that I don't participate in as much, because we're still working on stuff in our particular chapter. I've seen other occupations in small and similar locations who are likewise working on stuff in their localities. Some are totally disorganized, some are moving into specific areas, some are kicking ass.

I hope to keep the movement rolling. That's part of why I'm rebooting this blog. Economic justice is an issue dear to me, which is why I became involved in labor organizing, and no movement/organization/whateveritis has so clearly addressed income inequality than the Occupy movement/organization/whateveritis has.

Practically speaking, we're currently trying to build coalitions in our community to find allies and bring people in. I think Kansas organizing can benefit from the Occupy movement's principles as a way of shifting policy and culture because it provides a perfect umbrella within which these small, disparate, outnumbered groups can work under. To do that, we've started going to other people's meetings and also picked up issues that are effecting our community.

Long-term-wise, I've been preaching a three part plan: 1. Build Worker Coops so we can have resources, 2. Build unions to restart the labor movement in the US, which is practically inexistent and directly addresses the problem of economic inequality, 3. Create live-in collectives to keep activists in contact, working together, and bills down so our resources go further.

I'm always open to more ideas, though. And, since this *is* a reboot post, I think I'll try to keep it at that. You can also follow me on twitter @HuxleyDick, where I'll prolly post more. But I'll try to get back onto my 1/week schedule here.

I know this started as a science blog, but now I'm experimenting elsewhere. And, if you've organized within Occupy, you know we've made mistakes along the way. So, it kind of fits in a funny way. And, heck, I still think science is important, so maybe this'll be a way of getting some of those old posts read by people who don't know science as well. ;)